Learning To Be Naked

Here's the one topic that everyone who likes to be naked loves to
talk about - how they found out about the pleasures of non-sexual nudity
and how they learned to make it a part of their lives. In general, these
are "first-time" stories, but often they cover a period of time - because
the learning process is usually a gradual one.

Do you have a story like this you want to share?
Please write it down and
send it to me.
I'll be glad to post it here. (By sending it, you grant permission for
posting on this page, with possible editing for length, spelling, etc.
Be sure to specify whether you want your name and/or email address to
be used.)

Years ago the YMCA had swims for men and high school boys where the rule was
nylon bathing suits or no bathing suits. As only males were present I was
able to enjoy suit freedom. Well, the economy changed and as the swims were
open to women suits (of any kind) were required.

I wanted to continue skinny-dipping but knew that swimming alone in a remote
area was unsafe. Because nude beaches are not easy to get to where I live, I
found out about a nude campground.

After getting the necessary information I decided to give it a try, but first
I had a problem. At the Y I could go in swim, shower, and go home with no
problem. At the campground I would not want to go for just a short swim and
then go home. I also would not want to spend the entire time I was there in
the water. That meant that I would have to do something I had never really
done before -- go nude in mixed company.

At that time I was very comfortable going around my apartment in a bathing
suit. I was not comfortable just being nude while I was eating or watching
TV. After my morning shower I would wrap a towel around my waist and eat
breakfast. I always had something on. Now my question was "How can I be
comfortable going around nude in mixed company when I am uncomfortable just
being nude when I am alone at home?"

For one week before I went to the campground I practiced. Practice being
nude? Yes. Strange as it sounds I practiced. I would go around naked (no
bathing suit, no towel) whenever I was home. Watch TV, do dishes, do
cleaning, pay bills, what ever had to be done had to be done in the nude
(well, shorts were ok for doing laundry as the laundry room could only be
reached by going out into the public hallway).

When it was time for my first visit I had become comfortable with myself when
I was just plain nude. I did not need a reason like I was showering or
swimming, I was simply nude and I was more comfortable that way.

I went to the campground, removed my clothing, took the tour, swam in the
lake, sat in the sun, walked in the field, and really enjoyed clothing
freedom. When it was time to leave I took a shower and rather than try to
dry off in a humid area I went outside in the sunshine and fresh air. With
the light breeze I did not really need the towel. That convinced me - nude
was the only way to be.

Even as a child, I wanted to shed my clothes whenever possible. Sleeping
in PJs or underwear was the norm in my
houshold, so it is what I was taught to do. As a small child I used to
slip out of my sleepwear after I went to bed. It was
also as a child that I saw skits on tv about "nudist colonies". I think
that it was on shows like Love American Style. I asked
my parents about but they just looked uncomfortable, and changed the
subject. The obvious conclusion was that the subject
was dirty. This was consistant with my conservative religious
upbringing. Even so, I continued to be fascinated with being
nude. As I got older (hormonal teenager), some of this fascination was
surely titilation. I believe that what is hidden from
view holds a natural attraction for us. If clothing were not mandatory
in our society, I bet that the porn industry would be
dead overnight. Of course I am part of the generation that experienced
gang showers at school and at the YMCA.

From here
out I am going to confine my stories to instances of NON-SEXUAL nudity
in mixed company. It was at the end of my
teenage years that I had my first experience with nudity in a mixed
group. Here is that story.

It was the year that I graduated from High School. I went immediatly
from my graduation to a 10 day intensive training
program in small craft and aquatic safety. The school was put on by the
Red Cross. Most of the people (like myself) were
college students training for summer camp jobs. It was the first 2 weeks
in June and the weather should have been glorious,
but it was cold and rainy for the entire time that we were there. I was
in the small craft instructor program. We were training
to be instructors in sailing and canoeing. Because the total emphasis
was on waterfront safety, there were frequent lost
swimmer drills. During these drills it was the responsibility of the
small craft class to search the shallow water. Add this to
our regular training, and we were in and out of the water frequently,
and often without warning. Since it was too cold to go
around in swimming suits, most of us soon ran short of dry clothes. Many
of us developed some very uncomfortable rashes.
Trips into town were prohibited, but an instructor took pity on us and
collected one set of clothes from each of us to a local
laundromat, to wash and dry.

Sure enough, the very next morning, as we
were sitting in class, all warm and dry, the
waterfront alarm sounded. We stared at each other in horror, for a split
second, when one of the girls in the class
exclaimed, "To Heck With It." She then astounded all of us by quickly
peeling off all but her panties. As she dashed for the
beach, most of us followed suit. (Or should I say suitless?) Try to
imagine the startled responses as we searched the
swimming area Sans Clothing. When the drill ended we walked to the
classroom and dried off before getting dressed again.
This scenario was repeated several times throughout the session. By the
time the school ended there was only one holdout
who chose to remained clothed for the drills. He said that he was just
too shy. We never really talked about the situation to
any great extent, but we were quite the topic of conversation among the
other classes. Nobody ever reprimanded us for our
daylight skinnydips. I have often assumed that this was due to the
concern over the rashes that we had been getting from
wearing wet clothing. I do know that the whole experience changed my
view of nudity. I no longer viewed nudity as
primarily sexual. We had gone beyond that. Our nudity served a VERY
practical purpose, and had no hint of sexuality.

After that experience, I went nude whenever I could get away with it. I
went on to work at a summer camp. There were
several of us (counselors) who went skinnydipping frequently throughout
the summer. Out in the bay in front of the camp
there was a skijumping ramp. Late at night my friends and I used to swim
the quarter mile out to it and slide down it nude.
In the middle of the night, we saw no reason to wear swimsuits (and we
were better swimmers without them).

After that summer ended I didn't have many more experiences with nudity
in a group for some time. As I got older, I missed
the days of carefree skinnydipping and nonsexual nudity. I found a state
park where I could go hiking nude without
encountering anyone. These hikes were times of meditation in which I got
closer to my Creator by relaxing naked in the
midst of his creation. Even so, something was missing. Man is a social
being. I missed those innocent nude experiences.
Every now and then I would hear about nudists in the news. I even heard
news stories about gatherings of Christian
nudists. What I never heard was how to find these groups. This went on
for a long time until one day when I was in a large
bookstore in Lexington KY. I was going through the travel section when I
found a copy of the ASA Guide to Nude
Recreation. I bought it immediately. It changed my life. In it I found
out how to contact people in both landed and
non-landed clubs. Since it was wintertime in Indiana, there were no
landed clubs open. There was a travel club several
hours away that was having swims. I arranged to go to one of them.

It was a COLD Saturday when I had my first experience with social
nudity. I had to drive several hours from my hometown.
I have to admit that I was nervous. I had read a lot of ASA literature,
and I had talked quite a bit with the head of the travel
club, so I pretty much knew what to expect. We met in a parking lot at a
hospital near to the swim. From there we drove to
the swimming facility. After paying my admittance fee I went into the
mens locker room. It was all very reminiscent of the
old days at the YMCA. The big difference was that there were several
wives and daughters in the room with the men. I felt
like I had come home. We were all undressing and I could feel the
barriers dropping. For the next 3 hours I swam and
played volleyball, and socialized with a bunch of strangers. It was
glorious. The letting down of barriers, and the freedom
was something that I have been looking for all of my life. I drove home
that night feeling wonderful. The drive seemed to
take no time at all. I knew then that I was a lifelong nudist. After
that I went to every swim that I could get to, and when
warm weather rolled around, I started visiting the landed clubs in
Indiana. Although there was nothing closer than 3 hours
away, I enjoyed many quiet relaxing weekends. I chose a remote camp in
Southern Indiana for its quiet and natural setting.
Eventually I switched to a club in Southern Michigan because it was
closer and because it was year 'round.

Sometime later I discovered the Internet. It didn't take me long to find
Cybernude. It was there that I met Shelley, a lovely
Christian naturist. The rest is history.

From Richard,
January 26, 2000

I went to visit a friend in Vermont. He took me up to see some
friends of his who had a cabin on a lake. After lunch someone announced
that they were going down to the lake to swim. I told them I would join
them soon and went into the cabin to put on my bathing suit. When I
got down to the lake I was surprised to see that everyone was naked.
Two thoughts crossed my mind. One, I'll probably never see most of
these people again so, what the heck! Two, when in Rome do as the
Romans do! I took off my bathing suit and couldn't believe the sense of
freedom and relaxation I had. There was no sense of shame or
embarrassment. Since then I have gone almost exclusively to nude
beaches and always plan my vacations at nude or clothing optional
resorts. I have also joined AANR.

From Jon (UK), January 5, 2000

When I was 15, I watched a TV programme called 'Let's Go Naked'. It was all
about Cap d'Agde, the naturist resort in the south of France. It was a real
eye-opener for me, and from that day on, I wanted to find out more about
naturism. Then, a few months later, at the boys school I went to, I turned
up for a swimming class one day only for the teacher to tell us that the
cotton gym shorts that I and a few others wore in the pool were no longer
permitted, as the cotton was beginning to block the swimming pool filters.
That week, we would have to do swimming naked. So about ten of us undressed
very self-consciously and went out to the pool. Most jumped into the water
straight away to avoid 'embarrassment'. But I thought it felt great! It was
the first time I'd swum naked, and I really enjoyed it. Then, when we were
drying ourselves afterwards, the teacher told us that in future we'd either
have to wear swimming trunks - or nothing at all! Nothing at all? Did he
really mean it? Well, by the next week, the other ten or so boys who used to
wear gym shorts had gone out and bought trunks, but I hadn't. I only had a
towel with me - no shorts or anything else to wear in the pool. Could I do
it? Feeling very nervous, I got undressed and, naked, joined my classmates
by the outdoor pool. All thirty of them were wearing swimming trunks, and I
was the only one who was naked. The teacher gave me a puzzled look. "Well
Sir", I said "You did say you wanted us to wear swimming trunks or nothing
at all!" All he said was "Fine!" and got on with teaching the class. It was
absolutely great - such a liberating feeling, and for the rest of my time at
school I always went to swimming class naked!

It led to me spending time around the house without clothes when my father
was out (my mother having passed away two years before). I got into a
routine of coming home from school, getting undressed and doing my homework
nude before my father arrived home. The one problem I had was that I began
to wonder if my behaviour was normal. Just why did I like taking my clothes
off? Was I some kind of pervert? I knew no-one else who liked to do the
same, and there was no way that I could discuss it with my father (and I
still can't, twenty years later!).

After my father remarried, I had less chance to be nude around the house,
although I started sleeping nude at the age of 19. However, when I left home
at 24 and started living on my own, I found it convenient not to bother
putting on a dressing gown after having a bath, and, living in the country
and not getting many visitors unannounced, it wasn't a problem to sometimes
hang around the house without clothes - only perhaps for an hour or two
every week. But still I had this nagging doubt that there was something
wrong with me. Was I alone?

Years went by. Eleven of them in fact, and I was into my mid-thirties. Then
everything changed when I got on the internet in 1998. I set up my new
computer, found a search engine and typed in the word 'naturism'. And there
it was - hundreds of people, just like me, who prefer not to wear clothes! I
was not alone!

A few months later, I'd joined British Naturism and decided to set myself
some goals to do things in my new-found naturist lifestyle to make up for
the years I'd missed out. So, in 1999, I was spending every minute I could
at home naked (probably around 95% of my time at home is spent without
clothes), visited my first naturist beach (NO problem!), and booked a
holiday at Cap d'Agde! The weeks holiday was great - sooo relaxing, and
having taken enough clothes for a change of clothes every day, I brought
everything home with me unworn having spent the entire holiday totally
naked, and meeting some really nice people as well! It was a fantastic
feeling - being naked is so empowering, you feel that if you can do that,
you can do anything! Since then, I paid more visits to my local naturist
beach, and also visited a club which meets in a leisure centre, and have
found that I really enjoy playing badminton in the buff! I now have
absolutely no qualms about taking my clothes off in front of anybody in a
naturist environment, and am trying to visit a club or a swim at least once
a month, to 'keep my hand in' as it were. And I've also told some of my
friends that I'm a naturist, who have all been really cool about it - I even
ran into one couple I've known for ten years on the local naturist beach who
turned out to be naturists too!

For those who are contemplating taking the plunge for the first time - I
feel that I have achieved so much by living a naturist lifestyle in the last
year that I recommend it to anyone. It gives you a huge amount of confidence
and is just sooo relaxing and good for dealing with stress. Once the clothes
are off for the first time - I guarantee you won't look back!

I've been a clothes hater ever since childhood, when I used to go up to the
roof of the apartment building I lived in in New York City, the tallest
building around, and would lock the door from the outside so I could sunbathe
in the nude. My Native American - Mediterranean forebears must have passed
on some nudist genes to me, which made me a sun worshiper.

Years later, having achieved 'advanced amateur' status with my camera, I used
to frequent a small lake upstate, and would sometimes take models along for
some nude shots in the wilds. It wasn't until much later, however, when I
moved to Santa Barbara, that I became interested in letting others see me
without clothes. I saw an ad at the Art Department bulletin board at the
City College, that was asking for people to model - draped or undraped - for
the art classes. Having been in back of the camera so often in the past, I
felt a strong urge to learn just what it would feel like to be in front of it
- so I submitted my name and phone number.

The first class I posed for proved to be the most liberating experience I've
ever had, and soon became a habit since the teachers seemed to like my work
and called me back often. From there on it was all out for me. There are a
couple of nude beaches in S. Barbara which I often spent time at, and a
friend of mine graciously offered me the use of her fenced back yard to sun
bathe in so as to get an all over tan. Her young daughter became interested
when she saw me there, and with a little encouragement she too came out to
sun with me in the nude, and eventually brought some of her girl friends
along. I was concerened at first, about being nude in the presence of a few
nubile youngsters, but that too faded very quickly.

The very first ten minutes or so, in that first class I posed for, was the
only occasion which I might consider 'uncomfortable'. I was worried about
getting an erection in front of all those strangers, but I soon found out
that it's almost impossible to become aroused unless one is sex obsessed, and
never had a problem after that.

I got a chuckle from something I read on a web site - to the effect that the
number of people who answer the door in the nude for the pizza delivery man
went up by about 15% last year. How true that is or is not, is pure
conjecture, but it indicates people's attitude about nudity when they are
willing to confess they've done that. What I will say, using my own,
empirical experience as a guide, is that no one can ever know the sense of
freedom and exhileration which can come from being nude in public, among
other nudist - in prescribed areas, of course. The law still takes a dim
view of such proceedings.

I always loved to be nude from as far back as I can remember and
I'm almost 60. But never did it publicly or socially until I was
married, almost 40 yrs ago. My wife knew that I wanted to belong to a nudist
park, so we investigated a few just to see what they were like. Not caring
for them at the time, my wife never took up public nudity. It was fine in the
house, but not outdoors. So about 5 years ago while visiting our daughter and
our son-in-law who live in Long Island, they showed us the sites up and down
the Island. We passed close by to Fire Island, which is just off Long Island. On
that island is Robert Moses State Park. There are a number of nude beaches
located away from the clothed beach that are legal and well patroled. The kids
knowing my yearning to be nude in public with others took us there and as we
approached the nude portion stopped and put a blanket and beach umbrella down.
I sat and watched with envy at all of my fellow nudists and their families
havind a wonderful time. My wife said "go and join them" to my utter amazment! I
was afraid! Can you believe that? But she grabbed hold of my hand and pulled me
to the nude part. We went into the water together and she said....strip off
your suit! I did and was deleriously happy for the remainder of the day. She
still won't do public nudity, which makes me very sad, but she opened up the
most wonderful world to me that I always knew was there and for that I love
her even more. We only get to that beach maybe 2-3 times a year. But I look
forward to it with great anticipation!

From jrl, July 28, 1999

I guess I became a nudist during my first marriage. It seemed that, in
the process of exploring each other and learning about each other's
bodies, my wife and I just naturally began to spend more and more time
naked at home. The term "nudist" never occurred to me until her college
room-mate visited for a weekend and, while my first impulse was to cover
up, my wife informed me that Nancy really didn't mind as the both of
them spent much time naked at college. It was a rainy weekend and we
didn't get out so it turned out that the 3 of us spent the entire
weekend sans clothes. This became a regular practice although my wife
generally wore a robe around male visitors and we were always clothed
around our parents.Her cousins (female) often visited and went naked in
our home. I must confess that, at times, I found it titillating but
never acted in any provocative manner.

Sadly, we divorced and I have not found anyone that enjoys the lifestyle
as I do. I do visit a local resort from time to time and often swim nude
at Padre Island.

I was educated in a family, where the naked body and related topics were
held as something amoral. So my first time nude experience happened when
I was 8. I saw a film on TV with episode, where people bathed naked in
the sea. Due to my education, I did not understand how they could do it
without shame. For several days I thought about it, that people seemed
to me very courageous to bathe naked, and so I decided to find out
whether I am as cool and courageous, to test myself, can I even bathe
nude in the sea, but at least walk naked in my flat without fear or
without shame, can I step over the principles my parents put into my
head.

So when I stayed home alone, I went to the bathroom (it was the only
place where I used to be naked -- when bathing, so there was nothing
special about it) and put my clothes off. All my clothes, towels,
everything, that was in the bathroom I threw far away to another room in
order not to change my mind about the test. So I HAD to go naked in that
room. Believe me, it was very hard for me to exit the bathroom naked and
to walk for my clothes to another room, but I did it because I had to.
At first what I felt was a great shame -- I was ashamed with the thought
that I was totally naked walking in my flat, that it was not just
immoral, but was some kind of a sin for me. But really I was proud of
myself because I COULD do this, because I was brave and courageous
enough, and I could fight against this shame. It seems to be kid staff,
but it is even now very special for me. So this way I tested and
improved my courage. So in a couple of weeks I was able to walk in my
home naked without any problems with the shame of myself, my body, my
nakedness. I realized that it was very cool, I had the feeling of
something like a neverseen freedom, I felt comfortable without clothes,
so I started to do everything naked. I did all trivial things, my
homework, morning exercises, tidying my room up, etc. naked, as it was
possible of course. I liked this very much, so it continued for many
years.

When I was 13, decided to try to be naked outdoors. I came to a public
(non-nudist) beach just to do what other people do there and to see if
there would be a possibility to try to be naked there and not to be seen
by others, and in the same time not to be in a very remote place (not to
be hurt by maniacs etc.) I must say that I am living in one of the
ex-USSR countries, so we have no legal nude beaches, and so being naked
outdoors, even on the abandoned territory means violation of law with
all fatal consequences, if you are noticed by others, or, in the worst
case, by a policeman. But I was a young hot boy, I had that idea and
nothing could stop me. I was lying in the sun a bit on this public
beach, swam (in pants of course) and came to the woods. I found a small
meadow surrounded on all sides by trees. It was not far from the beach
but at the same time there was nobody near, but in spite of this I was
really afraid to be noticed by others. About half an hour I was just
looking to all sides watching if there was somebody. But no one was
there and I slowly, looking all around, took my clothes off... I felt a
freedom I never got before, a quiet wind was blowing on me, I felt it
with all cells of my young body, I sat on the ground and felt the
pleasant touch of the grass. It was really cool. I spent about half an
hour enjoying being naked in nature. I thought a lot afterwards about
it. It seems to me enigmatic until now how a small piece of cloth can
change your reception of the surrounding world. (I mean it seems to be
-- what's the difference if you are in pants or not or, even, for
example, have a watch on your hand or not, but when you are totally
naked, you feel much different than you have something on yourself.)

I am 20 now. Maybe I can never repeat this. Firstly because I am afraid
of being seen by others (people can understand a 13-year-old hot, young
boy, but cannot 20-year-old man), so I cannot enjoy of nakedness in such
meadows. Also, as I wrote above, I am afraid to be hurt by a maniac,
gay, etc. in remote place (not a paranoia, there were lots of precedents
in our city) and I afraid of being in nude companies because city police
makes raids against nudists (they took about 50 persons last summer).

Nobody: my parents, friends, my girlfriend knows that I love this stuff
-- to be naked. So I do not know how to be, what to do -- how to enjoy
nakedness and at the same time not to have problems with society and
close people, who do not accept nudism/naturism in any way.

From Ron-mid-west, April 22, 1999

I have always wanted to try nudism, but was really apprehensive about
it. I now realize that this was more being nervous than anything else.
The first time that I actually went nude was on a summer night and there
was a slight drizzle. I walked outside and at that moment, I wondered
what it would feel like to be nude. Well, needless to say off came the
clothes and I could not believe how good that felt. I proceeded to walk
in the woods down a path (we lived near the woods that time) and sat
down by the river. The cool night air and the light drizzle on my body
felt so good that I wondered why I hadn't done this sooner.

I then tried being out in the sun and found that to be just as relaxing.
I usually go to secluded spots that I have found. This summer though, I
am going social. I am not sure if it will be a beach or resort, but
either way, this will happen. I love the way being nude feels. At home,
the minute I walk in the house, off come the clothes. It is a wonderful
feeling that is not hard to express. Can't wait for summer to get here.
As it is now, I feel restricted being nude in my house and want to get
out.

I was aware that there is something like nudism when I was about 12. I
wanted to try, but my parents were not the persons I could go with. They
were just old-fashioned and I didn't dare to try.

Then I was at a high school camp in the mountains when I was 15. One of
the teachers (a woman) just returned from the seaside and told us she
was on a naked beach. She asked us if we wanted to try. Other teachers
supported her and told it was a good idea. As boys were all for, the
girls were almost all against. So we took a vote. How excited I was!
My dream was to come true in a few minutes! But to my dissapointment
some of the boys changed their mind and vote was lost by only one
vote.

Then I always tried to be naked at home when nobody was there. I felt
comfortable with this but still did not dare to go at a public beach.

Then when I was 26 I met a girl that soon became my girlfriend. She told
me she was a naturist and even showed me some photos from the beach. When
summer began we decided we'd go for a naked beach. Then that day came. I
was not afraid to strip in front of other people or to show my body
naked. One of my fears was that I would be excited seeing naked women
and that this would be clearly visible. So we got off the bus and headed
towards the beach. After the road turned I saw a naked man. Than soon we
entered the beach and many naked people of all ages showed in front of
my eyes. As I was afraid I became excited, but luckily I still had my
clothes on.

Finally we found a place. My girlfriend stripped and lay naked. I after
a short hesitation did the same and lay on my stomach trying to cool
myself. To my surprise after few minutes everything started to seem
normal for me. Then, after a couple of hours we decided to walk around
the beach. I was nervous again but nothing happened! We wandered
several minutes then we returned to pur place. I felt comfortable with
my nakedness, with wind blowing around my naked bottom. Then at the
evening we returned back home.

That was how I became a naturist. Now I am planning my next naturist
holidays in France, at Cap d'Agde preferably.

From Jeff and Amanda, December 11, 1998

After we purchased a computer and became acquainted with how to use
search engines I decided to explore what was on the Internet
"superhighway". I looked up "nudist" because although I knew about them
and had seen jokes in men's magazines I was very curious about just who
they were and what people did in a nudist camp. My wife and I are
modest and neither one of us liked to shower in high school gym class.
We had skinny dipped with friends, but usually at night and we walked to
and from the pool with a towel wrapped around us. We liked the
unencumbered feeling of being nude, and it was thoroughly enjoyable to
share the experience with friends.

As I was looking around at various web sites for nudist clubs and
activities, I saw they were organized and had activity programs such as
sports, holiday celebrations, and fun things to do. I originally began
looking at the web sites because I was mainly interested in looking at
naked women in an outdoor carefree environment. As I was looking at
various sites at different nudist resorts, I noticed the people were
obviously enjoying themselves and I began to envy them. I started
becoming very curious about what it would be like to remove my clothing
in front of other people and just go around being natural.

I showed my wife some of the pictures and said to her how much they
looked like they were enjoying themselves. Her reply was that they
could also be enjoying themselves with their clothes on. Soon she
became as interested as I was and before long she placed a call to a
local nudist resort and began asking a list of questions we had written
up. We wondered what kinds of people were nudists and who we might
likely encounter. A misconception was that they would all be "beautiful
people" with perfect athletic bodies. We were concerned about the
character of the members and if they were either exhibitionists,
voyeurs, or worse. We were assured that there wouldn't be a problem and
if there was, that we could report any offensive behavior and it would
be handled. That was very reassuring to us at the time.

My wife presented me with my birthday present for the "man who had
everything". She would treat me to a weekend at a nudist resort. We
asked what we should bring and were told to bring sunscreen, a couple of
towels, and some sandals. We met a nice couple in the office who asked
us some questions and we filled out some forms and presented them with
photo I.D. We were escorted to a restroom and told we were to remove
our clothes and we could wear a towel at first. I decided that sooner
or later the towel would come off any way and this was a good time, so
we carried our towels. We were given a tour of the entire resort in a
golf cart. During our tour I felt conspicuous to everyone as a
newcomer. We later learned the term is "cotton tail" because of the
lack of a tan on previously unexposed areas. We were glad to be done
with the hospitality tour and decided to go to the pool and meet some of
the nudists. At first we had a difficult time finding someone to talk
to. Eventually we met a couple who were very similar to us in many ways
including age, occupation, children, and similar interests. We
eventually met several other couples and were feeling very comfortable
without our clothes or bathing suits.

The concept of nudity changed, as everyone was naked and there were no
sexual overtones. There were several families and many children. We
met families who were second and third generation nudists. Many had
virtually grown up in a nudist environment. Now we envy them and our
biggest regret is that we didn't try this years ago.

As the day and the weekend proceeded we encountered some very novel
experiences such as coed showers. It is still an interesting experience
to shower with several people of the opposite sex. We participated in
several activities including water volleyball, shuffleboard, pool, as
well as swimming, the sauna and spa. One entirely new experience was to
go into a restaurant, place and order, sit down with, and socialize
with others at the table, and have lunch and dinner, all totally nude.

My wife loves her opportunity to get out of her clothes and her shell,
meet with our new friends, and participate in social and group
activities we would previously not have done. Since that first visit we
returned and eventually became members, met many very wonderful people,
and now we are volunteers for the hospitality tours introducing new
people to the world without clothes.

From Jim, August 18, 1998

My wife and I just got back from visiting our son in Vancouver. I have
always had an interest in nudism and practice it whenever I can at home.
While in Vancouver we decided to visit "Wreck Beach", a public nudist
beach. I/we were a bit apprehensive about public nudity but it took all
of 5 min. before I removed all my clothing when I saw so many other
people nude and another 5 min. before I felt comfortable with it. My
wife was rather more worried about it, but a man came up to us selling
East Indian silk beach dresses that were light and very sheer. My wife
bought one and put it on.. She said that it felt freeing and within 10
min. she was also totally nude.

We are in our early 50's and thought that there would be blatant
displays of sexuality and somehow some feelings of shame. This was not
the case! We spent the entire day down there and we both felt that we
had never felt so free and at peace with our bodies. It is a whole new
way of living and we felt very comfortable with our nudity and new found
freedom. My wife was raised very strictly and she was a bit of a prude
even with just myself and her. She is accepting her body and finding a
new interest in herself -- much to my amazement and benefit I may add.
The people, about 300 were very welcoming and the whole experience was
pleasant and gratifying. We will be going back and intend to try and
find a nudist club in Alberta, Canada.

We both agree that it was one of the most rewarding experience that we
have had. I am writing a web page about our trip and will post it soon.